A Stimulating ‘Spirit’ of Modern Movement

Modern dance evolved early in this century to restore the soul of Western theatrical dancing--a field then, as now, obsessed with spectacle, virtuosity and other types of display. On Saturday, veteran dancer, choreographer and teacher Marion Scott reinitiated the process with “Spirit Dances,” an unusual, stimulating program at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

“These dances are not choreographed,” read a program note, so “Spirit Dances” may well have been different on Friday or Sunday, but the Saturday version used some of the same strategies as modern dance pioneers for reconnecting performers and spectators to the deepest mysteries of the art.

Here, for example, was Roberta Wolin swirling in clouds of veils a la Loie Fuller, the gauze drapery forming an aura around her. Here, too, was Linda Gold, supremely articulate and in the moment, reaching for the spiritual with the fearless assurance of Martha Graham in one of her early feminist solos.

Robert Whidbee and Sen Hea Ha each shaped dramatic solos from traditional religious iconography, with Whidbee’s Christian gestural images framing an intense, athletic personal journey. Infused with the exquisite floating limbs of classical Korean dance, Ha’s piece used a small wooden shrine with a scroll inside as the focus for a cathartic ritual: a reminder on a largely upbeat program that spirituality can be dark, weighty and oppressive.

Ricocheting from song to dance, from solemnity to comedy, from high-speed technical feats to statements claiming that “I look for a sign from another time,” Michael Skelton ended by turning to Scott (“the crone, the matriarch”) and luring her from the audience.

Her own solo earlier had been built on transformations of stance and the sense of her fingers exploring space with a will of their own. It spoke strongly of her determination to dance again at age 77, after a 14-year hiatus and three hip replacements. But it never made her seem, to quote her written statement, “a vessel through which spirit can speak or pass.”

With Skelton, though, she opened up as if channeling his energy--suggesting that spirit may come to a dancer from an inspiring colleague rather than just an emanation from the Great Beyond.